in prior years, he's been out on what is called an apology tour. how fit would he be for the job and what do you think he would have left to apologize about? >> one of the questions people have is why the president apparently is determined to fight for chuck hagel but was not for susan rice. one thing you can speculate about is that perhaps chuck hagel's views as expressed in recent years are entirely consonant with president obama's and having lost rice, he doesn't want to lose again and he's prepared to go through an arduous confirmation. if these really are president obama's own personal views on how to deal with israel, what to do about the iranian nuclear weapons program or what not to do about it, i think that's very, very troubling and a marker of what the next four

years will look like. >> the one that seems of most concern to americans is chuck hagels former position, maybe president obama's position, on israel. >> right. i think hagel has said really remarkable things, things that i think frankly border on outright anti-semitism so that's going to be a major subject of his confirmation hearing. maybe we'll see what used to be called a confirmation conversion where he attempts to recant those statements. he's done that on another subject, his view of gays and lesbians in public life. he says he has changed his view. he certainly hadn't said anything on that until just before his apparent nomination. so whether he sticks by what he said publicly or whether he recants is going to make for interest confirmation hearing. >> one of the things that leon

panetta brought to the post and still does is the fact he hadn't spent time running the c.i.a. in countries like iran where intelligence is scarce, and we're looking at turmoil in syria as well, especially with russia getting involved by bringing in assets, that's something that he doesn't have. so what do you think chuck hagel would bring? what will be president obama's argument to congress in terms of these hearings that chuck hagel uniquely can bring to that post? >> at one point it was thought that what president obama was seeking was a republican who could help sell difficult defense budget cuts to fellow republicans but that's gone by the boards. i don't see any visible evidence of republican support for their former colleague in the senate. and one of the things that's awkward about this is that we

have secretary leon panetta, wht with no timetable. you have a lame duck secretary of defense, hard to make decisions, uncertainty about the future. if barney frank because the interim democratic senator from massachusetts when john kerry is confirmed as secretary of state, you've got somebody who is basically vowed to do whatever it takes to stop the hagel nomination as long as he's in the senate. the prospect is real confusion and uncertainty and the absence of effective active leadership has the department of defense, precisely at the point in time when the threatened see questions transportation of the defense budget looms in a couple of months. >> understood. thank you for your thoughts. >> thank you. >> more about former senator hagel. as we were talking just now, he's a vietnam veteran, decorated two purple hearts. he's a member of the secretary

of defense policy board and cochairs president obama intelligence advisory board. critics counter in 2007 then senator hagel backed withdrawing troops from iraq and opposed the troop surge and in 2006 critical of the influence of pro israeli lobbyist in washington, d.c. hagel supported die dialogue with iran and hamas. a fox news alert and breaking developments out of syria and the president there, bashar al-assad, giving his first public address in more than six months. denouncing growing opposition against him and showing no signs of backing down. leland vitter is following this live from our middle east bureau. what else did we hear? >> essentially this is the same old from president assad. he acknowledged, we're at war.

he also offered up this peace plan of sorts, some kind of negotiations with the cease-fire. essentially it's the same thing he's offered in the past. it's important to note he's giving russians diplomatic fire power. you guys wanted me to talk about having a new government. i'm happy to talk about it and give the rebels a chance to pass, which they did. it's important to look at the optics. a cheering crowd in damascus at the opera hall and it was given live on states television and meant to rally the troops, especially the are regime royals. they control much of syria in the army and air force. rebels said this was a disgrace and they have no interest in talking while president assad is

in power and they'll continue their fight. they have zero in terms of negotiating with president assad and said there's no point negotiating while he's in power. the other point assad makes is he's blaming foreign fighters, foreign governments for insighting uprising and point to go al-qaeda among the rebels, which we're seeing a growing number of. the state department has designated it a terrorist organization among other jihady groups. not interested so much in a free and democratic syria as an islamic state inside syria. the key point to take is this is a president assad not willing to step down. he's not going to leave power or go into ex highly, at least not yet, and appears to be willing

to continue this fight against the rebels. nine months ago the united states state department said they thought damascus would fall in 36 hours. president assad has shown and uncanny ability to hold on to power. when you saw him speaking, he didn't appear to be a man under great threat or a man about to lose power. he appeared to be defiant, thinner than we've seen before but firmly in control of his country or at least the part of the country that those loyal to hill maintain. >> leland, thank you very much. back to washington now and president obama facing another fiscal fight. putting pressure on congress to raise the nation's debt limit. the gop says they'll only consider it if spending cuts are part of the deal.

what political capital does the president have left for his next battle and those that lie ahead? schirra is a staff writer, thanks for coming in. >> thanks for having me. >> raising the debt ceiling is non-negotiable. how is that going to go over with republicans? >> this is very much the first opening for ray on both sides. the president is non-negotiable, he wants to raise the debt ceiling. you have conservatives in congress saying we're not afraid to let the government shut down. they're starting on the opposite sides of the court and they'll move towards the center, if there's a deal. >> the president says he's willing to talk about more spending cuts as we discussed. not only the debt ceiling but also the sequestration, which is still on the table. that was pushed two months down the road and has to be dealt with but the president says he's not going to talk about that without discussions on more

revenue, perhaps more tax hikes. is that on top of the ones with the fiscal cliff deal? >> when you borrow money and raise offsets. the president made it clear he wants that to come from revenue. the next thing they need to look at is spending cuts and congress is going to push for that. especially given the president got pretty close to what he wanted in the last fiscal cliff fight. it's going to be hard to ask for more for taxes getting raised. >> i remember george w. bush coming out in his second term talking about political capital he earned and his plans to use it. if we look at the political capital this president earned, how much has he used and how

much is left? >> he's careful not to say the m word, mandate. which is what president bush said after he tried to privatize social security. the president has a fair amount of political capital given two months from now is not that long of a time. he'll have momentum from winning the election but it won't be as good as december. republicans, if they're smart, especially house republicans and conservatives, will have figured out the bargaining game more and better than last month. >> let's talk about republicans. a lot of them i'm hearing from them and reading reports they feel they have the upper hand, leverage heading into the national discussion on raising the debt ceiling. why do they feel thief -- they have that leverage? >> because they lost the last time. for all intents and purposes that he lost the fiscal cliff debate. the president got way more than

republicans got out of their side of the bargain. i think republicans feel they have more leverage. also, i think they have seen polling that shows americans support spending cuts across the board especially when it comes to raising the debt ceiling as part of a larger deal. if you take a closer look at the polling, once you name individual spending cuts, voters are less inclined to support them. if you name individual programs that they would cut. generally voters support spending cuts in conjunction with the debt ceiling. >> there are polls showing republicans would have taken the blame if no fiscal cliff deal had been achieved. is there a thinking honest republicans -- amongst republicans that that will shift and if we fail to raise the debt limit we default on our loans, it's the white house and democrats would get the blame and not republicans? >> republicans hope that's the

case. i don't think that's very likely. either they'll share the blame, if there's a government shutdown or you states defaults on credit. the last time the government shut down in '95 and 9 # '6 it was the house of representatives. >> your washington colleagues have been writing about the infighting, the division within the reason party. is that overstated and is there a way for republicans to come together in a way that maximizes their strength, power, and unity in debates that are to come? >> it's not -- i think that fight for boehner's speaker ship, that was overblown. we knew he was going to maintain the gavel. i think that the infighting amongst the house republican caucus is not overblown. conservatives, the dozen or so

that abstained or voted against speaker boehner are very strong and they could have a strong influence on policy. there's only a dozen but they're a strong voice and can shift things. >> you can read schirra's work at roll call. thank you for coming in this morning. >> thank you. if there was ever a time to take charge and get your financial house in order, we're going to tell you what you can do right now to make sure 2013 is your most successful year. >> plus you can't plan your financial future out factoring in the rising cost of healthcare. how high premiums are expected to go and how much more you could be on the hook for coming up. i gave birth to my daughter on may 18th, five days later, i had a massive heart attack. bayer aspirin was the first thing the emts gave me. now, i'm on a bayer aspirin regimen. [ male announcer ] be sure to talk to your doctor before you begin an aspirin regimen. [ woman ] learn from my story.

i just served my mother-in-law your chicken noodle soup but she loved it so much... i told her it was homemade. everyone tells a little white lie now and then. but now she wants my recipe [ clears his throat ] [ softly ] she's right behind me isn't she? [ male announcer ] progresso. you gotta taste this soup. with a new project in mind, some how-to knowledge new year's clutter is no match shefor someone with big ideas.e? to give us an edge, and more savings down every aisle, it only takes a few twists and turns for those bright ideas to make the new year even brighter. more saving. more doing. that's the power of the home depot. art fresh and save with x 20-gallon totes, a special buy at just $5.88 a piece.

"fox news sunday" as several exclusive interviews today with the fiscal cliff debate barrel in the rearview mirror. lawmakers gearing up for a new battle over the debt ceiling. jim gordon and chris van hollen got off to an early start. >> we have yet to cut one dime from the last debt ceiling agreement and it's time to do it again. we've got to stop the madness. this is the 18-year-old kid on the credit card. they maxed out the card and instead of cutting it up and putting them on a budget, obama says give them a new credit card. >> yes, we have to do more cuts. the president's been clear, he put on the table $1.2 trillion in cuts proposal combined with $1.2 trillion of revenue. the only reason we weren't able to do forward is house republicans decided not to follow speaker boehner. >> john roberts is filling in on

"fox news sunday" for chris wallace. great to see you. >> great to see you too. if that discussion is any indication, the next eight weeks are going to go interest on capitol hill with a lot of fur flying. >> can you see them agreeing on anything? >> absolutely not. mitch mcconnell laid down a marker saying we're done with the revenue side. we're not accepting any revenue generated off the backs of the american public. the president is saying i want more, i want another $600 billion as chris van holland alluded to. so far the white house has only proposed a miniscule number of cuts. so the next debate is going to be all about spending cuts. and the big question is, because there are three deadlines, the debt ceiling, the sequester and then money to fund the government at the end of march.

how far will the debate push that debt ceiling and if we go over the edge, if you will, of the debt ceiling and cannot meet our obligations, what effect does that have on america, the world and american taxpayer. >> the question also is at that point does the president act on his own and raise the debt ceiling out even going through congress? >> he has said that he won't go to the 14th amendment, which is the mechanism he could do it. but nancy pelosi said she would do it in the second. >> without seeing whether or not they can come up with a bipartisan solution. what are we going to end up doing, print money? >> they do that every day. how would anything be different? the bottom line is when you look at the fiscal cliff deal, $600 billion in new revenue on high income earners and $15 billion in spending cuts,

leaving a $4 trillion hole on the budget over the next ten years, you can't keep going that direction. something has to happen. it's a matter of -- everybody agrees, when i asked van hollande and jordan i said do you agree we need to rain in the debt? yes. the question is how do you get there. when you look at the argument on "fox news fox "fox news sunday." how do you come to an agreement that's beneficial to the american people. >> before i let you go, let me ask you what sense you got and look back because this fiscal cliff deal was only supposed to impact a small percent but many people, not only the middle class, but more people are saying they are middle class than ever before, they got hit

too. >> oh, yeah. you can say it's only high income earners but when you reinstate the payroll tax. the tax holiday was unsustainable. you're raising taxes on middle income obamacare, you're raising taxes on middle income earners. taxes are being raised down the line. >> we're all going to work harder and longer. >> wouldn't be it be nice to at 80 years old, work because you want to as opposed to because you have to? >> i like that. we'll see what happens. >> thanks. >> great to see you. >> don't miss john roberts' interviews with jim jordan and chris van holland. he'll discuss government spending and gun control with ted cruz. "fox news sunday" airs here at 2:00 and 6:00 p.m. eastern and

check your local listings. >> sweeping new federal food safety guidelines. how it could redefine your dinner table. one in five americans are expected to come down with the flu this season but is the flu shot the only way to keep from getting sick? the a team weighs in. >> we're taking your questions. go to foxnews.com sunday house calls. the doctors are tapping away at the keyboard and they may answer your questions on air too. we'll be right back. supply costs... down... ...and down. just use your maxperks card and get a case of x-9 paper for only 1-cent after maxperks rewards. find thousands of big deals now... ...at officemax. ♪ many hot dogs are within you. try pepto-bismol to-go, it's the power of pepto, but it fits in your pocket.

now tell the world daniel... of pepto-bismol to-go.

time now for "sunday house call." joining us, dr. marc segal, nyu langone medical center, author of the swine flu and bird flu, everything you need to know about the next pandemic. >> and dr. david samadi. mount sinai medical center in new york city. >> good morning. >> a major warning as this year's flu season is already off to an early and very deadly start. thousands of people and more than half of the country have been infected just in the first few weeks of this winter season. what's going on? >> i want to tell people what flu is. a package, a tiny package of

genetic material covered with an envelope. the envelope has proteins. h protein helps the virus get into your cell. the n protein helps the virus get into another cell. h3n2 is the version we're dealing with and it's bad. in 2003 it led to the deaths of over 40,000 people, a similar variety. we also know and the cdc said it tends to give you an early flu season, which we're seeing. it could take time at the end of this month or early part of next month -- we haven't seen the peak. we saw over 2,000 hospitalizations last week. we talked about this yesterday on the air. we've seen 15,000 recorded cases but probably more than 50,000 cases because physicians like me don't bother always testing for it and always reporting it. sometimes we look at something called influenza-like illness. do you have a fever, do you have muscle aches, do you have

fatigue, do you have a sore throat and cough? classic symptoms. fever and fatigue are first. when we find that we isolate you, we want you to stay home. we might give you tamiflu and watch for the wrongically ill, very young and old and pregnant women. >> dr. smadi, we talked about the fact it started early being a problem. what about folks who have not yet gotten the flu shot? what would you say? >> i would say that it's not too late and you can get your vaccination. it takes two weeks for i couldn't immune system to kick in so we have time. we're five weeks ahead of schedule with this flu. >> what does that mean? >> it means we should be like somewhere around january or february and now it started way earlier. the good news is the match we have for vaccine and the virus

go hand-in-hand, that's perfect. we're still not doing well with the number of vaccinations. 127 million got vaccination, only 27%. that's not good. the purpose of this segment is not to scare people but educate them that -- people tell me, did you get your vaccination? yes, i didn't get one because i get sick. not true, this is a dead virus. it's not active. so most questions comes, is it really a common cold or is it really the flu? the flu is a full-blown picture of fatigue, fever, body aches, you're really sick. common cold is a runny nose and congestion. the whole idea -- we've talked about this before, z pack crisis. you don't treat it with antibiotics because most of them are virus.